So I had a user that booted up their Windows Vista system this morning and found that they could not get connected to the network. When I popped over I found that it was displaying an error message in a balloon from the system tray saying:

Failed to connect to a windows service.
Windows could not connect to the System Event Notification Service service. This problem prevents limited users from logging on to the system. As an administrative user, you can review the System Event Log for details about why the service didn’t respond.

Then when I looked at the Services on the machine a number had stopped working. When I tried restarting then I got the following error message: “Vista Error 10107: A system call that should never fail has failed”

At this point I looked around the Internet and found an answer. It would appear that its a Corrupt TCP/IP Winsock Catalog. The method for trying to fix this is:

Start the PC in Safemode.

Open and CMD prompt (press the Windows Key+R).

In the CMD prompt type netsh winsock reset and press enter.

Restart the computer.

This will reset the Winsock Catalog to either a clean slate or a previous configuration. It will remove all Winsock LSP (Layered Service Providers) previously installed, including any malfunctioning ones.

To check the LSP’s installed on your Vista system, use netsh winsock show catalog command.

I had the need the other day to make a desktop running Windows XP connect to an Apple Server for a user. I setup a user on the OSX Server and then tried to connect to this machine from my Laptop to make sure that the account was working before I went over and tried to show the user and looked silly when it didn’t work. I found that my Laptop running Windows 7 would not work. Okay so off to Google and see what I can find. It appears that Vista & Win7 both have a different set of rights that stop the ability to set a Mapped drive to the Apple Server, LAN Manager Authentication: Vista & Win7 defaults to “Send NTLMv2 response only”.

So I bought this Notebook back in Feb-2009 with Vista on it. It’s been a great little machine. Not too small or either too big, since most Notebook/Laptop bags seem to have been designed for 17” machines. Anyway I thought it was time to load Windows 7 on it. So I purchased a copy of Home Premium with the intention of loading the 64-bit version. Next I thought, let’s head to HP’s website and see what drivers, if any, they have for my Notebook and Windows 7. Well, HP and really on the ball. They’ve got a whole section with download’s for Windows 7 for my Notebook.

so about 1 hour passed and I had all my drivers and software updates needed from HP for my Notebook for Windows 7. Next I had to backup any files I had. This was easy as I already had an Iomega 250GB external HDD which I connect via USB 2.0. At this point though I was not sure that Win7 would be able to read my Vista backups. So I just simply did Folder copies from my Notebook across to the USB drive.

Now I was ready to install Windows 7. I inserted the Windows 7 DVD and booted up my Notebook. At the BIOS screen I made sure that I booted from the DVD Rom and not the HDD and started the installation. Once into the configure screen I deleted the old partition and did a clean install onto the fresh disk. After about 50mins it was all installed and the system rebooted.

Once I had logged in and I then went about installing the HP drivers that I had previously downloaded. These went on without really too much of a fuss. The only thing that you have to remember is that some of the applications are going to need a reboot after they’ve been installed. I only had to reboot my Notebook about 3 or 4 times in total so not too bad. Everything works great, except the HP Assistant. I’ve still had issues making this work, but it’s not a big issue as I can check the HP website for updates manually.